Job Description: Sample Job Description

The purpose of the following job descriptions is to enable you to organize and schedule your PA needs. This will help you analyze the amount of work you need and enable you to become a more effective manager.

Job Title

Personal Assistant (PA), part-time

Nature of Work

Suzy Rose is a college student at the State University (SU). A recent car accident caused a spinal cord injury. This resulted in paralysis and a loss of sensation below chest level. In addition, she has a partial use of her arms and wrists. She uses a motorized wheelchair and drives a lift-equipped van. While attending SU for pre-law studies, she needs a PA who also is her campus dorm roommate. She needs assistance in the morning and at night. She usually is independent in activities during the day and during on- and off-campus social activities.

Qualifications and Quality of Employee

Trained and experienced personal care attendants/aides are welcome to apply. However, student applicants with no experience can apply if they have the following qualities:

• Be dependable, arrive for work on schedule, or call as much in advance as possible when unable to work.
• Be on time or call as much in advance as possible when arrival will be delayed by 10 minutes or more.
• The PA roommate who shares Suzy's dorm room always must be present in the room whenever Suzy is in bed. This is required since Suzy is not able to get out of bed on her own or attend to sudden medical or personal needs in an emergency.
• Keep Suzy's thoughts, values, beliefs, relationships, and activities confidential and private.
• Maintain a reasonably clean and neat personal appearance, while providing assistance to Suzy.
• Never come to work under the negative influence of alcohol, medications, or drugs.
• Be willing to discuss and resolve employment-related problems with Suzy.
• Provide Suzy as much advance notice as possible when resigning in order to help me find a replacement.

Duties to be Performed

Each part-time PA will be asked to perform a specific section of Suzy's task checklist shown below. That section will be identified and discussed at the on-site interview with Suzy or her PA coordinator.

Task Checklist of Needs for Assistance

Work Schedule and Comments

The schedule of duties will be discussed at the on-site interview. The PA occasionally will be asked to help with non-routine duties. These will be requested and scheduled in as much advance as possible with the PA.

PAs are requested to provide at least a week's notice when time off is needed and a four-week notice of intention to resign.

Salary

The starting salary range is $5.15-$6.75 per hour, depending upon previous training and experience of applicant. Good job performance will be rewarded with a $.25 per hour increase after 3 months. No health insurance benefits, paid vacation or sick time are included. Suzy pays salaries from personal funds. Paychecks will be issued each week on a regular day. The day will be determined during the on-site interview.

Note: If you hired the PA through an agency, the salary section might state, "The ABC Agency is responsible for payment and other job benefits."

Adapted from Home Health Aides: How to Manage the People Who Help You (pp. 323-331), by A.H. DeGraff, Fort Collins, Colorado, 1988. Copyright 1988 by Saratoga Access Publications. http://www.saratoga-publications.com. Reprinted with permission.

Hiring > Sample Job Description

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